It is known to make handle bags of a predetermined bag width from an elongated synthetic-resin tube by advancing the tube in steps of the length equal to the bag width between a matching die and anvil. Between each advanced step the die and anvil are brought together to make a longitudinally extending and transversely undulating cut through the tube having a longitudinal length equal approximately to the bag width. This die therefore subdivides the tube downstream of itself transversely into a pair of tube halves having staggered and interfitting handle flaps.
One of the tube halves is then detoured through a distance equal to an odd-whole-number multiple of half of the bag width and then is brought back into transverse alignment with the other tube half, but obviously with the handle flaps now in perfect transverse alignment. Transverse weld seams, normally constituted as a pair of transverse welds separated by a perforation line, are formed on both of the tube halves simultaneously equidistant between the flaps.
Such an arrangement, which is generally described in German Pat. No. 1,244,547, therefore produces a succession of handle bags with minimum waste. The only part of the tube that might be wasted would be the part that is punched out of each flap to form a hand hole, and in many cases this hand hole is only punched out on three sides so that there is no waste whatsoever.
A disadvantage of this system is that it operates relatively slowly due to the step-wise advance of the tube. An even greater disadvantage is that the system cannot be adapted to make bags of different widths without changing the die and anvil. Obviously the die and anvil are relatively expensive items which not only cost quite a bit themselves, but which take some time to change.